I’m not drinking coffee at the moment as it seems to make me feel a little jittery too easily so I’m discovering the joys of tea again and the most interesting a varied form of tea, especially if I want something more exciting, rather than soothing, is Chai. While recording the last podcast episode with Tiffany Bond at Chez Laila in Portside we enjoyed a pot of Chai which lead to a discussion on the joys of it.

It’s only been a couple of years that I’ve been making Chai and when I mentioned to Tiffany that I make it she seemed a little surprised but I explained how easy it is to make and how there is no one recipe for it, rather it’s an artform that is as unique as the individual, their mood at the time, the weather and the spices and tea on hand. However there are a few ingredients that are basic to all recipes.

My method is simple and easy, and I throw it together, let it brew over and hour or so to enjoy over the next couple of days. Tiffany asked for my recipe and as I wrote the email to her I thought that others may be interested in just how easy this is so here is my recipe.

Just remember there is no correct method and all and every component of this recipe can be changed to suit you but this is a good basic recipe to get you started.

All measurements are loose and dependent on how much falls into my hand on the day or my mood. It will never be wrong, although occasionally a batch will be better.

• 1 litre of water
• 6 cloves
• 5 cm of cinnamon or half teaspoon of powder
• 6 peppercorns
• 8 green cardamon pods (cracked open with the back of a knife or spoon)
• 2 cm of fresh ginger (sliced finely)
• 2 desert spoons of sugar(or to taste)
• 2 desert spoons of good black tea (I like Dilmah)

Heat all spices and let simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.
Add sugar and return to simmer to dissolve it.
Turn off heat and tea add immediately.
Allow to steep for 5 minutes(too long and it’ll go bitter).
Strain off all spices and tea, then refrigerate liquid for use as required.

I heat 2/3 cup of tea to 1/3 cup of milk in a small pan as needed.(add more milk for a chai latte).

I use Demerara sugar as I like the earthy flavour but also for a change I use Palm sugar occasionally. Not easy to get but very interesting, rich flavour. My favourite place to buy the spices in Brisbane is All India Foods, 31 Balaclava St Woolloongabba. Their range is huge, in bulk if you want and you won’t beat the pricing anywhere. Fresher and better than the supermarket.

Pretty simple really and don’t sweet the small stuff as far as ingredients go as like I said you can add different spices depending on what you want, bay leaves, chilli, nutmeg, mace whatever. It’s all up to you. Nutmeg is nice as is its cousin mace but a little scary so be careful with it as it has a lot of the psychotropic chemical in it, that is also present in nutmeg. I no longer use it as it makes me anxious and hyperactive which no longer suits me but if you want that “charged” feeling give it a go.

That’s it… Enjoy

 

As I mentioned in the previous post and Episode with Cliff we also chat with Ant and Natalie about how they dealt with discovering that their 16 year old son Christopher had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and how they used a treatment including Cliff’s product to return him to health. If you like to, listen to the Full Story of Christopher.

In my discussion with Ant & Natalie, they mentioned that they would be happy to assist anyone with additional information by being first contacting me. If you would like to contact them, in the first instance send me an email to chat@YourStoryPodcast.com and I’ll happily pass on your contact to them so they can contact you in return.

To help you understand a little better Christopher’s condition, these are the PET scans mentioned that had been done at the time of our discussion.

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Welcome To Episode 47 of Your Story.

Cliff Hawkins story is of someone who in helping his own family with food allergies discovers that he has found a mechanism to help the greater community with some of the most damaging and deadly autoimmune diseases and cancers. Only then to be financially destroyed by the greed of a large corporation when he attempted to move his discoveries to the rest of society.

My local, wonderful sour dough bakery, Sol Bread recently started using an additive within some of their range that allow people with gluten intolerance to eat their bread. I immediately wondered how is this possible and what has been created that allows the bread to function during the baking process to still be as good as normal but doesn’t have the negative effects on people with these issues.

As many of us know wheat, dairy, soy and peanut/legume allergies cripple millions of people around the world with ill health effects from irritation to full blown life threatening Anaphylactic Shock and long term health issues.

I tracked down Cliff Hawkins of Biohawk to share with us exactly what he has developed, but I had no idea how deep this rabbit hole was to go.

Cliff explains that most food allergies come from the part of the protein within the food that is designed by nature to protect it from damage so that the plant can continue to utilise it for it’s needs. This protection mechanism unfortunately for some people is the cause of food intolerance.

As with 30% of the Australian population Cliff’s family, with it’s Irish heritage has a gene that reacts to these proteins in harmful ways, creating many dangerous health issues for his children and grand children. He set out 40 years ago to find a food and the relevant enzymes that would achieve the amazing task of neutralising these proteins. Using sound scientific processes gained as a medical research scientist he searched food sources dipping into knowledge known for centuries to discover within the ginger plant, specific enzymes that had the ability to cut out these dangerous proteins rending them harmless and making available all of the protein for digestion. Cliff explained to me that, within the individuals genome there are genes that when turned on, causing an immune response to these specific proteins.

Simply through the use of a natural, whole food in this unique way, Cliff has developed a product that makes the protein easily digested, with better nutritional value, tastier and without any health issues. I have no idea how Cliff has managed to pull this off but he has not synthesised anything or stripped out just the reactive components insofar as creating a substance that could be defined as a medicine but uses the whole ginger food. He has some limited, simple processing which I have no idea of but the essence of his work is that his product is nothing but ginger, so falls into the safety of the Pharmacopoeia as an accepted, approved additive to any food or medicine.

NB. According to the University of Maryland website, ginger has been used as a medicine in Asian, Indian and Arabic herbal traditions since ancient times. In China, ginger has been used to aid digestion and treat stomach upsets, diarrhoea and nausea for more than 2000 years. Ginger is also used by natural health practitioners to treat arthritis, colic, headaches, fever, swelling, heart conditions, the common cold and nausea associated with motion sickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy.

He claims that the more serious health conditions of auto immune diseases have a basis in food allergies caused by creating a hyperimmune system that attacks various parts of the body including diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Autism, Schizophrenia, ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and many others. These Autoimmune Diseases are due to the immune system sending proteins to make the B cells that make antibodies to attack the the dangerous pathogens disproportional to the threat, meaning the immune system is overreacting. These excess proteins then go on to react with the body, creating the auto immune disease. Cliffs product has the same effect on these proteins by cutting the excess proteins out, reducing them to normal levels, then allowing the body to return to normal.

That same strategy used by plants to protect their energy stores from being broken down are also used by viruses, bacterium and cancers to protect against the immune response of our bodies. These serious pathogens and cancers have a high proportion of these dangerous proteins on their surface which Cliff’s product has the effect of trimming off allowing the body to react and destroy the cells. The Ginger product simply removes their protection, so our immune system can do it’s job and destroy them and the danger.

Though there is ample evidence to show the benefits of Cliffs ginger products they are sold as Aid to Digestion only and the benefits will be dependant on individual circumstances and the conditions being treated.

To understand better how this works from Biohawk here is an explanitary PDF.

Although this is hard science it also has an element of a craft, with a passion in caring for the greater community and realising that nature, in it’s whole has many of the answers for what we need.

Not only are these human health but also animal husbandry issues and like us, many farmed animals are grain fed and have many of these same health problems.  Cliff has discovered that the same health effects can be gained with animal health particularly with race horses, cattle and poultry. With animal health there are direct financial benefits to the owner of the stock justifying the use of the Animal Health range.

Having received his initial training at the prestigious John Curtin School of Medical Research, Cliff  is the former Professor of Chemistry, Dean of Science and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at University of Queensland  (Biological Sciences). This is his Linedkin Profile.

Cliff’s products are available online and through agents and pharmacies. His main products are DigestEasy sold as a solution and Relief both sold as an aid to digestion and Bake Aid.

His website is biohawk.com.au
email is info@biohawk.com.au

To help you understand a little better Christopher’s condition, these are the PET scans mentioned that had been done at the time of our discussion.

Additional Content

I recorded much more detail with Cliff than I was unable to include in this episode. If you would like to go deeper into this story listen here to Cliff with the full recording.

In this episode we also chat with Ant and Natalie about how they dealt with discovering that their 16 year old son Christopher had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and how they used a treatment including Cliff’s product to return him to health. If you like to, listen to the Full Story of Christopher.

In my discussion with Ant & Natalie, they mentioned that they would be happy to assist anyone with additional information by being first contacting me. If you would like to contact them, in the first instance send me an email to chat@YourStoryPodcast.com and I’ll happily pass on your contact  to them so they can contact you in return.

Twelve Common Medicinal Herbs

Mayo Clinic – Ginger

Ginger – Overview

University of Maryland – Ginger

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Welcome To Episode 38 of Your Story.

Bernard King intrigued me when I first meet him 6 months ago. I’m sure you know the type of person. They are the quiet individuals who remain discreet, don’t say a lot but have a particular grace and efficiency with movement, words and thoughts that convinces you that there is more to them than is at first obvious.

Bernard is one of these people, quietly spoken but the waters run deep, but how deep?

That’s the reason for asking him onto Your Story and as it proved he shares with us a life of becoming the Junior World Ballroom Dance Champion at 15 and 16 years of age. Dance was eventually left behind but not before moving into professional stage and cabaret.

He tells of the life of Reilly in his youth as a qualified hairdresser living for years in Spain and Italy mixing with the European Royalty and the Glitterati  of the ’60′s. Amongst those he brushing shoulders with were  Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy. But not all is as wonderful as it may at first seem and there is a price to be paid both for the famous and also for him moving amongst them.

In the mix of a full life Bernard happened to be held hostage not once but twice, first by The Kray Twins in his teenage years and later by The Red Brigade in Italy.

Tragically later in life Bernard describes how difficult it was to lose his wife and soulmate to the slow slide of Alzheimer’s Disease. How difficult it was to care for her and how the person he loved turned into something that was not her but the illness. Despite this Bernard has a lightness about his life with positiveness for the moment. Enjoying the day as it is.

Soon he and I along with a group from our tango class will be going on a 3 week trip to Buenos Aires. I look forward to what else he my tell me.

Note: Bernard recently came third in the state qualifying round of the Australian Tango Championships. Seems you just can’t keep him back.

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Welcome To Episode 35 of Your Story.

Today we talk with a married couple, Lucy and Willy who for the last half dozen years have been in the Swinging scene of recreational sex where they sexually share each other on occasions with other couples.

Wikipedia describes swinging as “non-monogamous sexual activity, treated much like any other social activity, that can be experienced as a couple.”

In this episode of Your Story Lucy and Willy describe how they discovered, discussed and the decisions to move into what’s referred to as “The Lifestyle”. With frankness they explain how they considered all possible bizarre situations, many of which eventually evolved and laid down ground rules for them to deal with too much intimacy and explain that contrary to the way it’s promoted, as harmless unemotional sexual fun, there is the danger that emotions do become involved and create the messy dynamics that are part of all human relationships despite the fact that rules are in place and all agree that it just for Fun.

Lucy and Willy say that’s it’s a great lifestyle but with dangers that need to be considered if your entering The Lifestyle and that open, loving and honest communication with your partner is first and foremost and even with that there are potential pitfalls to watch out for. From their experience if your considering this lifestyle take care and Do no harm seems to me to be the message.

Interesting websites sexisfunradioshow.blogspot.com,  couples.net.au, swingercast.com.

email is is via me.

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Have you ever thought about doing something for the greater community? Have you ever considered donating blood?

I first gave blood back when I was only 19. I didn’t initially do it out of generosity but because I was able to do it during work time and they gave us a free lunch of as much as we could eat. As a 19 year old with a ravenous appetite I made sure I filled up.

After a short while of doing a couple of donations I realised that I was actually doing something good for the community so I’ve continued now for 30 years. I wouldn’t say I’m a regular, my lifestyle doesn’t enable me to make that sort of commitment but when I have the time I often pop into the local blood service where I might be living and give.

Whole blood can only be donated every 3 months to enable time for the body to regenerate so if I had been regular I could have only made a maximum of 120 donations to date. As it is I’ve just clocked up 45 donations so you can see how irregular I am. But hey it’s 45 donations and every bit helps.

All these years I’ve been donating whole blood but my last visit 6 weeks ago I gave plasma for the first time and today I donated plasma and platelets for the first time.

The procedure takes quite a bit longer, for me about an hour hooked up to the machine whereas for whole blood I can normally fill a bag in under 10 minutes. However plasma and platelets can be donated every 3 weeks and are very highly valued as it requires more of a commitment and the platelets have a shelf life of only 5 days.

Here is a little video of me being jabbed and hooked up to the machine to give you a bit of an idea. Thanks Shelly

If you want to do something for the community that costs you nothing but your time consider donating. There are blood services all over the place, it’s a pleasant way to chill for a while and they give you something to drink and eat. Maybe you’ll even get an ice cream like I received today.

Go on you’ll feel good for doing it.

 

Welcome To Episode 29 of Your Story.

Today we talk with Stephanie Messanger who explains how, if we take the time to understand our responsibilities regarding our personal and family well being we can manage our health without the use of vaccination.

Stephanie has been more than an advocate against vaccination and big Pharmaceutical for years, having had a personal tragedy in her own life, she is more importantly promoting the self care and education that we should take for ourselves as the natural order of good health.

Stephanie helped to educate me to the increase in conditions such as Autism due to the the side effects of vaccination and the research that is underway to show the effects compared to non vaccinated communities.

As the HPV vaccine is rolled out under the brand name of Gardasil here in Australia and the rest of the world Stephanie explains the dangers of this long term experiment on our young daughters. There are many that feel that Gardasil is dangerous.

Stephanie’s Email is growingawareness@hotmail.com.

She has passed on the following links for you to look through to help you on the journey of self education.

The China Study by Dr.T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campblell II at Amazon

mercola.com General site about health.

zeusinfoservice.com General site about health.

visainfo.org.au Vaccination Information Servicing Australia

nvic.org National Vaccine Information Centre (US)

vierascheibner.com More information from a Doctors point of view

A very interesting You Tube clip regarding 1918 influencer epidemic and the possible future bird flu pandemic.

Stephanie gave me this booklet from VISA Info to look at which is full of interesting information to help with your research.

To understand the eradication of Small Pox please watch this amazing presentation for his TED wish from the man responsible, Larry Brilliant from TED Lectures February 2006. His philosophy is not so much about vaccination but more importantly Early Detection, Early Response. This is what he sees as the way to eradicate disease and more importantly when there is a future pandemic, gives us a way of proactively responding without the singular reliance on vaccination. This has already been achieved with SARS and he shows us how.

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Joe Pacino
“6AM” (mp3)
from “Halloween Lounge Party”
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Welcome To Episode Fifteen of Your Story.

I’ve always loved cooking, experimenting with flavours and styles and some people say that I’m okay at it. I particularly enjoy what people would refer to as healthy food. I’ve been accused many times of being a bit of a health nut

That’s not the case, it must first taste good. Good nutritious food is not only good for my body it also tastes great. With that attitude a few years back while learning about different food styles I discovered Macrobiotics and learnt about some amazing food styles that most people have no idea about.

That being the case several years ago I was given a cookbook as a gift and discovered some of the most simple and incredible flavours that I’ve had the good fortune to learn how to create.

This cookbook is Nourish by Holly Davis and today we have the opportunity to explore the food, the philosophy and the passion of Holly, how she got here and the Sydney restaurant iku that she had for many years.

The book and her cooking style is based on the philosophy of macrobiotics and the relationship of food within it. Holly gives us one of the best descriptions of macro I’ve heard and helps to explain that it’s not as people think of. That is of being a restrictive diet but rather an all encompassing way of both living life and eating. That all things are available to be eaten so long as there is balance within the whole of a persons life.

Her website is foodbyhollydavis.com
email is holly@foodbyhollydavis.com

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Welcome To Episode Twelve of Your Story.

I sometimes wonder how the world sees the Australian culture that I know so well. Do they believe the myths that are played out in the media or do they believe something else? I also wonder, but very rarely, what is going on with mental health, a field I know no one to have interacted with. Also what of the impact of drug use on mental health, is it something to be concerned with, especially as I have a teenage daughter? Well here are some insights from some one who knows.

Today we talk with Adam who as a psychiatrist working within the mental health system in drug and alcohol issues. He made the leap to Australia as a migrant a few years back.

In his own British style he gives us an interesting and insightful view of Australia from the government to social and personal cultural styles.

Adam explains some of the failings of the health system but also what works. Particularly how through support from the compassionate community around a person with mental health issues there is the possibility for a bright future.

The points that Adam primarily makes will resonate with most, as the fundamental issues that we all want in life. In that we all want a good, happy life with our community.

Despite the many and I’m sure appalling things that Adam has seen he has an upbeat and positive view on Australia. Mentioning several times how people managed to succeed in the majority of cases and that it is the few that fall through the system that we focus on rather than the majority of successes.

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“Maoz Tsur” (mp3)
from “The Hanukkah Lounge”
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Welcome To Episode Eleven of Your Story.

Once again through the assistance of Juan Mann I meet and we talk with Jenny who while working at University in her studies came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. CFS is a condition that leaves the person exhausted from the very simplest of life’s activities.

Jenny explains how life for a young woman is with this condition and the way it impacts on living a normal life. How she lives a life of work, socialising and university. The challenges of getting enough rest while wanting to still have a full life. How to have hope and excitement for a future when there is no way of knowing how she will feel and even if she will be able to participate in what is planned.

Along with the challengers of this condition Jenny has an underlying enthusiasm for life and a desire to participate fully in it. There is a lesson in Jenny’s story for all of us.

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